This summer, the state announced plans to shut down medium-security Mount McGregor Correctional Facility by next July 26, one of four sites targeted for closure. Three other similar institutions in New York -- Monterey Shock, Schuyler County; Butler, Wayne County; and Chateaugay, Franklin County -- also are slated to close.

The Department of Corrections said the facilities aren't needed because of a shrinking statewide inmate population and that the move will save $30 million.

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"I'm all for fiscal responsibility, but this doesn't make sense," Assemblyman Jim Tedisco said. "This is government by fiat. We had no say in the closures. We should work together to make sure that we minimize both financial and safety concerns."

Wednesday's event at the Mount McGregor Quality Work Life Building was led by Donn Rowe, president of the New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association, along with state Sens. Hugh Farley, Betty Little and Kathleen A. Marchione and Assemblymen Tedisco and Tony Jordan, who all spoke about the negative effect closing these facilities would have.

"We need to bring Gov. Cuomo back to the table and govern," Rowe said. "This fight doesn't end here."

While the proposed closures say layoffs will be limited by transitioning employees to other facilities, it ignores the impact that it has on local communities, he said.

"The loss of 300 jobs to our community is devastating. Mount McGregor is a benefit and true asset to our town," Wilton Supervisor Art Johnson said.

Scott Dussault, president of the Civil Service Employees Association Local 168, said over the years Mount McGregor has provided workers for fire suppression throughout the Adirondacks, asbestos removal, maintenance of roads, churches, fire departments, nature trails and more.

"We cut firewood and deliver it to 80 needy families in the area, a program that cannot continue without Mount McGregor," he said.

Dussault said he, in particular, will feel the closure personally, as his alternative is to move to the Cayuga facility in Morena, which is more than three hours away.

"I have family here. What am I supposed to do? Sell my house, buy another and uproot my family? It's not an option for me," he said.

The politicians and union representatives also brought up the safety issues that closures like this can have for workers and inmates.

"We've been told that these closures are occurring because of decreases in inmate population, but the commission of corrections has repeatedly failed to produce the numbers on these vacancies," Assemblyman Jordan said. "Assaults will rise on officers as inmate numbers increase (by decreasing facilities), and it makes no sense to send the prisoners at these facilities to maximum-security prisons. These are places with a dangerous population that has no respect for human dignity and life and no interest in rehabilitation."

Tedisco, Marchione and Jordan on Tuesday announced a bill that would give the Legislature a chance to debate prison closures before they take place. Tedisco said the legislation should be introduced early next week and that a memo seeking co-sponsors in the Assembly and Senate is being circulated.

Mount McGregor Correctional Facility currently has 320 employees. Inmate levels have dropped from 455 to 319 since the announcement of the closure, Dussault said.

Mount McGregor has been part of the corrections system since 1976, when a minimum-security camp opened there in 1976. A medium-security prison was added five years later. The minimum-security camp was closed in 2010.